Common Pleas Judge Robert Batchelor instead sentenced Charles Miller, 29, to the maximum penalty
of 17 months in prison and delivered it yesterday with a stern admonition.

“You have a history of not following the law, whether it’s speed or underage consumption of
alcohol or domestic violence,” Batchelor told Miller.

“You have simply written your own code and done what you wanted when you wanted. The result, Mr.
Miller, has been tragic — a word that does not sufficiently describe the suffering that has
occurred as a result of your actions.”

The brakes on Miller’s Ford Explorer failed near the top of a steep hill in Roscoe Village in
Coshocton on Sept. 17. His SUV barreled down Hill Street, reaching speeds estimated at 60 mph
before it smashed into a parked car at the bottom of the hill.

Mary Baldwin, 68, was getting into the passenger side of her Toyota Prius when Miller’s SUV
crashed into her vehicle.

She was knocked backward across a sidewalk and into an iron gate.

Her husband, George, 72, of Grinnell Drive on the North Side of Columbus, was sitting in the
driver’s seat at the time and sustained 13 broken ribs and a broken scapula and clavicle.

Miller was driving without a license.

A felony charge of vehicular homicide was dropped in exchange for Miller’s guilty plea in March
to counts of vehicular manslaughter, a first-degree misdemeanor; driving while under suspension, a
first-degree misdemeanor; as well as speeding and failure to control.

Driving under suspension also violated Miller’s probation from a prior felony domestic violence
charge and added to his sentence.

Miller told the court that his wife had just returned to work that day following a maternity
leave and that he couldn’t find a ride to take his 1-month-old daughter, who was in the vehicle but
uninjured in the crash, to the baby sitter before he went to work.

“There’s nothing I can say that will make it right,” said Miller, sobbing. “I should have never
been in the vehicle that day.”

Mr. Baldwin said he took a shred of consolation in Miller’s tearful apology as he listened from
the back of the courtroom.

But it didn’t bring back his wife.

“Physically, I’m fairly well-healed,” he said afterward. “Emotionally, it’s another story. I
wonder if you ever recover.”

Roscoe Village is a tourist area in Coshocton, about 75 miles northeast of Columbus, restored to
resemble a 19th-century Ohio and Erie Canal-era town.